Comments on Building Peace: Things I've Learned: Don't get angry unless you me...

To anonymous - just stop relieving them early - an...

2010-01-17T07:13:37.426+02:00

To anonymous - just stop relieving them early - and if they make a comment about it, say "I'm just following your lead".

My anger problem stems from things I can't con...

2010-01-09T07:41:57.494+02:00

My anger problem stems from things I can't control, but which still irk the living hell out of me.

Big one: Where I work (shift work), it is "common courtesy" to relieve your co-workers five or ten minutes before the technical end of the shift. You know, just to give them time to put on their coats, get their car warmed up - the usual.

Thing is, I always relieve people at ten minutes till the hour, and almost every day the person who relieves me thinks nothing of standing around jawjacking with people until thirty seconds before the shift change.

This really pisses me off, and I get extremely angry - to the point that I drive like an idiot on the way home.

I can't say anything to these morons who have no manners, because technically they are not required to be in the chair until the exact minute the shift is over. Plus, it would give them too much power over me to know how irritated I get about it.

But it happens nearly every day that I work, and I can't seem to stop myself from getting really angry every single time.

I have no idea how to stop this, because it will never NOT bother me, and it will probably never stop happening.

So what do I do?

When I was a lieutenant, I would always here peopl...

2009-12-06T18:26:58.483+02:00

When I was a lieutenant, I would always here people complaining about the Army as if it were a person or creature. "Oh, the Army did this" or "the Army doesn't think that". I found that one of the ways to solve problems is to stop thinking about the Army as some thoughtless creature, but to think about oneself as "The Army". That sounds kind of new-agey, but it allows one to think about ways to solve immediate problems and effect long-term change. I don't think I explained that well, but it makes sense to me.